Happy Halloween!!

Dear Taylor, Anna and Hudson,

We had such a fun day today.  School parade, fun family dinner, and trick-or-treating with your school friends:)  Such a great time, too much candy.  Happy to be going to sleep:)

xoxo
mom

A perfect fall evening

Dear kids,

Tuesdays are usually busy. Everyone has to be somewhere, during dinner, when Hudson should be in bed. It is not our favorite evening. Well, a few things happened today and we wound up having the best time tonight!!

There was a major car accident near our house that closed the main road. A 5 minute drive home from school took 40. So, we skipped dance class. That alone, changed our night. We usually pick Taylor up at 5:30 and race Anna to soccer at 5:45. Tonight, we finished homework, everyone had a nice dinner, and we left with plenty of time to get to soccer.

Only one other kid showed up for practice so we stayed and played flea while and had such a great time!  Anna rocked a very stylish soccer outfit, Hudson ran and ran and ran, Hudson and Taylor played, and Taylor practiced with the few girls that finally showed up.

Such a special evening with my kiddos.  I am so happy we walked Anna to practice and stayed!  (usually we pull up, and she runs!).  I guess today, I can say that I did Carpe Diem:)
xoxo
mom

Hard work

Dear Anna,

You have been doing a lot of hard work lately. Practicing letters, learning site words, memorizing facts for your saint report and learning to tie shoes to name a few!

You are sometimes earnest, sometimes a space case, and sometime not interesting in anything than hanging out with your bestie Hudson!!!

None the less, I can always tell when you are trying because your tongue is hanging out when you are:)

I was trying to catch a pic of this last night and instead got a big smile whole you were working on this show tying book.

Love you Anna girl!
Xoxo
Mom

Pumpkins!

Dear Taylor, Anna, and Hudson,

We sure love pumpkins! Luckily for you, daddy loves to carve them. The weather has been unseasonably warm, so we spent the afternoon carving pumpkins outside.

Of course, we had to do a pumpkin as a tribute to our SF Giants.  Fingers crossed they will wrap up this World Series tonight or tomorrow:)

We saw on Pinterest that you could use a cookie cutter and a mallet to make patterns in the pumpkin- well, we tried it here with the star cookie cutter, and it makes a super cute pattern.

All in all, a great Sunday of pumpkins, and baseball:)
xoxo
mom

Just in case

Dear Taylor, Anna and Hudson,

I am going to tell you about the first time Daddy met Grandpa.  I can remember some of the details like it was yesterday, but most are already hazy.

So, it was Grandpa's birthday and I was taking him out to dinner.  I had been dating Daddy for 11 days!!  11 days is really not long at all.  So, I was taking Grandpa to dinner, and decided it would be ok for him to meet Dad.  I wasn't ready for the entire dinner, so I picked Grandpa up for dinner, and had arranged that Daddy would pick me up form dinner (come at the very end for a minute or two) and then Grandpa would take my car home.

Well, quite a bit or negotiation ensued to make all this work.  Daddy offered to come for the whole dinner, Grandpa said, "why don't we make the reservation for three Just. in case"  (get it Justin, just in- he thought it was so funny).

Anyway, Daddy was so nervous that he got a speeding ticket on the way.  The two of them got along famously, and I will tell you MANY stories in your lives about how I really married a many much like my dad.  This dinner started a great friendship between Grandpa and Dad, and 11 months later we came back to the same place to have our first dinner as an engaged couple with both our families.

I was so lucky that Daddy was such a catch, and Grandpa loved him as much as I did:)
xoxo
Mom

Getting in the picture!

Dear Taylor, Anna and Hudson,

I made a promise to you over in this post here.  I promised to get in the picture with you three, so that hopefully at some point you will know that I was there for your growing up!

So, my goal is that every Friday I will have a few pictures from the week.  I am starting with a low bar. One afternoon this week we were waiting for the Giants World Series game to start, and we snapped a few pictures:)

xoxo
mom

We couldn't exclude the buba from the picture!  Too bad he was happy to be excluded and didn't want anyone to try to hold him in place.

Flowers everywhere!

Dear Taylor, Anna and Hudson,

One of the best parts of my job is that I always wind up bringing beautiful, fresh flowers home.

You girls love to pick the smaller arrangements that come home for your rooms, and Hudson, you love to smell the roses:)  Here are a few of my favorites from the past year.

xoxo
mom

Bribes

Dear Anna,

One of the things I love about you is that bribery works. I know that it isn't a great way to parent, but I find that we are both happy in the end- everyone wins!

Dinner tonight was a perfect exams. I wanted you to eat a salad, you wanted a treat from the candy dish. Everyone wins:)

Halloween is a sham

Dear Taylor, Anna, and Hudson,

I secretly, or now not as secretly, think Halloween is a total sham.  I think it is so strange that we buy costumes, dress you up, and then cruise the neighborhood knocking on the doors of total strangers while they give you candy.  Then we come home and people come to us looking for candy... for hours.... about $200 worth of candy.  Doesn't this seem weird?

Well, you all seem to love it.  Taylor, you like a darker costume- you want to be scary.

Anna, you love anything with really good accessories, last year you were a bride, this year you are going to be a 70's girl because you really wanted to buy the clip on earrings that go with the costume (see below).

Hudson, you, as always, are along for the ride.  Last year you were the cutest pumpkin in the patch:)

For the first time we took Daddy costume shopping with us, and boy oh boy, was he surprised.  I think that in his mind, a costume was $20 and that was all in.  Today, Daddy also learned that costume shopping is a SHAM.  You can't just buy the Hermione cape, you need the tie ($19.99), wand thing, and the other accessories.  Daddy thought we had bought an extra costume, but it was really just the tie.

All that slipped away when we saw you try on your costumes tonight.  You were both SO THRILLED!

I am not sure how I missed getting a picture of Taylor Hermione but I will definitely get one of you on Halloween.  So, while this is my least favorite holiday of them all, and think is is a sham, we will go big, and celebrate for you three and your great love for your costumes!
xoxo
mom

Friendships

Dear Taylor, 

When you were born, I was lucky enough to be pregnant with a number of girlfriends, all expecting baby girls:)  It was such fun to be able to worry together, celebrate milestones together, and pass those very long days with infants together.  

Tonight, Daddy and I got to catch up with one set of these friends that we absolutely love!  Daddy went to high school with the mom in this family, and when we walked into our first baby care class as pregnant couples- they were there!  When I was in early labor, Daddy went out to get ice, and found the other mom wandering the halls with her IV of pitocin.  We labored in rooms that shared a wall- she delivered a little girl that day, and I delivered you a few weeks later.  We lived a block apart, shared meals, took long walks pushing baby strollers, vacationed together, celebrated birthdays, second babies, and everything else. 

While we have not grown apart, we have both moved from our starter homes, you are now in different schools miles apart, and we have busy lives doing nothing but keeping up with our kids.  All that said, we had such a great time catching up.  Our lives are so similar, parallel really.  

I guess my point is that as you develop friendships and time passes you will find that people will ebb and flow from your life, and that is ok.  Of that initial group, we still see very few of those couples/families.  But, those families play such a special role in our family history.  We are grateful to each of them for the times we shared, and will be happy to see them when our paths cross again.

Taylor, you were so lucky that you had such a fun group of friends, and that group of friends will change over time.

xoxo

mom

Carpe Diem....or as I often think....don't.

Dear Taylor, Anna, and Hudson,

There is another blogger (Glennon Melton) who writes the most incredibly interesting, empowering, wonderful blog, and there are many of her posts that have resonated so strongly with me.

The first is a funny/light story about how when you are a mom, and your kids are young, life is a whirlwind.  Not bad, not always good, but it passes quickly, and sometimes the details blur.  Glennon wrote an article for the Huffington Post about how when you are a mom, it is REALLY hard to Carpe Diem.

Let me start with a few things:
1. I think you are three of the most incredible people on earth.
2. You bring more joy to my life than I ever thought possible.

Now, a couple counterpoints:
1. Being a mom is hard work.  I worry.  I fret.  I second guess myself.  I ask your dad hundreds of questions about you three: Are we doing the right thing?  Are you eating the best foods?  Should you do more/different activities?  (Really, hundreds.  Ask him.  Usually when he is trying to sleep/read/watch tv.  I am almost like the riddler.  He loves it:))

2. You three are the light of my life 98% of the time.  The other 2% of the time you are not the light of my life.  You have tantrums, you tell me I am ruining your life, you are mad at me because I didn't buy you leopard print suede flats, you are mad because you don't like your snack, you are fighting because someone touched someone else.  All real problems....... or not at all.

All that said, it can be easy to lose sight of how magical parenting can be.  It can be tempting to rush through the evening routine of homework, dinner, bath, reading, teeth brushing, etc.  In the end, while I am not so much a carpe diem kind of person, I am working really hard to stop and enjoy the process.     I know I will be the old lady in the grocery store saying, "oh they grow up so fast, savor every moment."  Hopefully I will be like Glennon plans to be and say, "You completely out of control kids are so great! let me get your groceries, pull the car around."

xoxo
mom

Rub a dub dub... three Davis kids in the tub.

Dear Taylor, Anna, and Hudson,

Every family has embarrassing bath pictures with all the kids lined up in the tub.  Every. Family.  I promise.  You three are new to the family bath since Hudson has only started to like baths in the last month.  Now that he has discovered the fun he can have with this sisters, he is a "bath maniac" as Taylor says.  

Next up: figuring out how to take a cute, appropriate picture of all three of you in there:)

Here is our routine most nights: we have dinner at 5pm sharp.  If homework is done and you don't have any activities we go straight to the tub. Hudson usually stays in there for about 30 minutes before jammies and bed, while you girls can play together for up to an hour.  From there, you get in your jammies and read until lights out at 6:30.  You three are so great at bedtime.  I am such a lucky mama.

xoxo

mom

My Anna Girl

Dear Anna,

I found myself working from home on Friday and was so excited to have a date with my girl.  I picked you up from school and you chose CPK for lunch.  We had the best time coloring and reading together.  After lunch you declared that it was time to SHOP!  We hit Nordstroms and it was a matter of minutes before you found this bag and in turn, found love:)  You were so excited.  You marched the bag to the register to ask the price and declared, "I don't know what my budget is, but I need this bag."  Lucky you!  The bag was a whopping $14 so I was thrilled to buy it for you.  

Daddy and I were headed to an 80's cover band that night, and you kindly let me borrow the bag under the condition that I would brag about it:)  I was so grateful that I could use it, and everyone loved that I borrowed the bag from my 5 year old.  Later that night I snuck into your room to tuck you in and give you a kiss and you were sleeping so peacefully.  

Thanks for such a special date.

xoxo

mom

A promise to my love bugs

Dear Taylor, Anna and Hudson,

I recently read this article over at Huffington Post, and like the author, and many moms out there, I too am guilty of hanging out behind the camera.  I took a spin through my iPhotos and found a photo here, or a photo there, but for the most part, you would not look back and "see" me.

So, my sweet babies, I promise to do better.  I will try to get in the picture with you, because I learned this summer, that pictures are worth 1,000 words.  I have spent hours looking through my dad's photos of my childhood and he was often behind the camera, but also IN so many pictures with us.  Even better, he is in some great pictures with all of you!

I have flipped through some of the pictures and chose a few.  None of these are favorites, they just capture daily life, and in each, I hope that you see that I am so incredibly grateful to be your mom.  It is just about the best job a girl could get, and you three make it far more fun than I ever thought possible.

xoxo
mom

10/31/11

 

Me and Hudson 7/4/12

My favorite picture with my dad.  Love this one!

Loveys

Dear Tay and Hudson,

You both have a lovey. Taylor, you have had blankie and JJ since birth and sleep with them every night. If we travel, they travel. JJ has gone missing from time to time but we always find her and you are always so happy to have her back. Last night, for the first time, you slept without blankie. Thus morning I asked you about it and you said that your cousin told you to try it for a night and so you did. For now, you are going to keep blankie. What makes blanks so special is that Grandma gave it to you. As soon as you were born and had a name, she raced out at bought this blanket and embroidered it.

Hudson, a fee weeks before you were born Grandma delivered a batch of special handmade treats, including your blankie. You LOVE blankie. You carry it around, and when you find it on the floor, you dive face first into it to snuggle.

I don't know when you will grow out of this, but for now, we will keep the blankies.

Xoxo
Mom

ps- Anna, you have lots of blankets but not a true "lovey."

Best.Dad.Ever

Dear Taylor, Anna, and Hudson,

Your dad is just about the best ever, because he has a great sense of adventure, and never let something like a nap time get in the way of a great time!

Monday was Columbus Day so you guys were off to the Sac Valley to see rice harvest, have lunch with some of Daddy's co-workers and then collect all the pumpkins you could imagine.

 In front of a combine harvester.

Anna, you insisted on driving the combine. Taylor, you politely declined because you were wearing white jeans:)

PUMPKINS!  Hudson, you absolutely LOVED cruising through the fields of pumpkins.

All in all, it was a really special day for you guys, and you had a great time!

xoxo
mom